New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
America is full of hard pills to swallow, and even in a world of microdosing, one can still not elude the trauma of simply existing, minding our own business, while Black. As a Black woman, I keep a tally of times the media gets it right. By right, I mean the times the media shines a spotlight on Black women who, while trying to traverse a white world, are exploited, mentally and physically abused, and taunted to the point that we question our sanity and the very reasons we took the time to strive this hard (only to meet a bludgeoning force that viciously frames our successes as the product of white folks fraudulently being duped as villains who owe it to the disenfranchised to right ...
I know I'm getting old, because any time I watch a TikTok video about witchcraft, I hear myself unironically grumble, "Back in my day…" For instance, whenever a WitchToker swears up and down that the very first thing a new witch must learn is protection magic, I immediately think, "Back in my day, we started with grounding and centering." But as curmudgeonly as I can be, I will admit that having a few basic protective wards in place—or knowing how to create protections on the fly—is never a bad idea. As the following (honestly not that) harrowing tale of what the kids call "baneful magic" will illustrate. [Ed. Note: I'm not going to get into the intricacies of baneful ...
It can be challenging to stay energized and motivated when the days are getting colder and the nights are getting longer. Nature slows down during these colder months, and so do we. We need sunshine more than ever in these darker days, and although the sun is ever-present, the brightness and warmth it can bring tends to fade from our awareness into the stream of summer day memories when the temperature dramatically drops. Connecting with the energies of the sun through solar magick can help stave off the doldrums of the colder months and bring many benefits year-round. The sun lights, warms, and fuels our world. All life on earth depends on the sun, from the tiniest plant to the biggest ...
Land spirits can be mysterious to many practitioners, often seen as something to fear. In my years of teaching, speaking, and writing about the magic of working with land spirits, I have found that much of this fear people have around land spirits stems from the expectation that land spirits and faeries are the same thing, and therefore something to be wary of. Faeries are one type of spirit of place, but in my definitions, they are not land spirits. Land spirits are the spirit of the land itself, the oldest living spirit in any given place—the primordial essence of life, an elder beyond age. Having a connection to them is a gift, and never something to fear unless you live at odds ...
